Seikatsu no To (People’s Life Party) has rebranded itself as the Liberal Party, adopting the name of a recently defunct conservative party in a bid to lure right-of-center voters away from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. The party registered its name change at the ...

Sunday’s Upper House election is a matter of survival for some minor parties that face losing their party status if they fail to garner enough votes. One key result being watched closely is whether the leader of the Social Democratic Party will be re-elected, ...

Former lawmaker Takashi Yonezawa, who was leader of the now-defunct Democratic Socialist Party, died of respiratory failure at a hospital in Miyazaki on Thursday. He was 76. After serving as a senior official of the labor union at major chemical maker Asahi Kasei Corp. ...

Columbia University’s Gerald Curtis recently wrote, “It is a sad commentary on Japan’s politics that after nearly 70 years of democracy a competitive party system has all but disintegrated.” The Democratic Party of Japan is a culprit in this disintegration and slim hopes for ...

Diet heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa, leader of Seikatsu no To (People’s Life Party), admitted Monday that the opposition camp failed to give voters an alternative to the ruling bloc in the Lower House election but stressed that change is still possible if they join hands. ...

Ichiro Ozawa, leader of Seikatsu no To (People’s Life Party), made a rare campaign speech in his home neighborhood in Oshu, Iwate Prefecture, on Sunday. “I owe my long years in politics to everyone in my hometown. Please give me your support so that ...

The Supreme Court has upheld lower court rulings that found a former secretary to veteran lawmaker Ichiro Ozawa guilty of failing to report political funds, the top court said Wednesday. On Tuesday, the court’s No. 3 Petty Bench led by Justice Masaharu Ohashi turned ...

Once held in awe in the political world as a shrewd power broker, Ichiro Ozawa now leads only a tiny opposition party and is trying desperately not to fall behind the current realignment of opposition forces. Ozawa, who leads Seikatsu no To (People’s Life ...

When Prime Minister Shinzo Abe loosened the limits of the pacifist Constitution to drop a ban on the Self-Defense Forces fighting overseas, many experts said it was a step toward becoming a “normal country” able to do more in its own defense. But Ichiro ...

Tatsuo Hirano, former minister for disaster reconstruction, faces an uphill battle for re-election as a House of Councilors lawmaker in the fiefdom of former power broker Ichiro Ozawa. Hirano, 59, parted with Ozawa last year when the influential politician bolted from the then-ruling Democratic ...